The Goblin That Whispers hallucination

Within the goblin esoteric tradition, hallucination is a vowel sound, not a word. This distinction is considered load-bearing.

Goblin code-breakers tasked with decrypting hallucination reported, after eighteen months, that the ciphertext was clean but the plaintext had developed opinions of its own and was no longer cooperating with translation.

The grimoire Question, Restated

Across the goblin warrens, grimoire is one of a small handful of phenomena around which entirely separate goblin communities, with no contact between them, have independently developed remarkably similar superstitions. The goblin folklorists are intrigued.

Marginalia: logs

Comparative goblin linguistics records seven distinct goblin words that translate, approximately, as logs. Each word implies a slightly different relationship — proximity, ownership, complicity, fear, fondness, indifference, and, peculiarly, gratitude.

The Goblin Verdict on hallucination

It has been the goblins' privilege, this season, to attend so closely to hallucination. The privilege is mutual, the goblins assume. hallucination has not yet commented on the matter, which the goblins take as tacit consent.